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A working-class boy from Stoke
Newington, Bourne has enjoyed a successful
career in the theatre, whilst being an active
force for change as part of the Gay Liberation
Front. He embraced drag in the 60s, at a time
when transvestism was not only considered
outlandish, but was also perilous. He spent a
number of years in a hedonistic drag commune
and, appropriately enough, is best remembered
on the Edinburgh fringe for his brilliant
portrayal of the flamboyant Quentin Crisp in Tim
Fountain’s Resident Alien.
Bourne’s life would make for a fascinating
autobiographical book, but Ravenhill’s conceit
in this production is inspired. Sharing these
three hours with the man himself feels like a
privilege. Not once falling into the trap of
sentimentality, Bourne tells his life story with
such candour and charm that we feel somehow
directly implicated in his memories. As
Ravenhill rightly points out in his introduction
to the playtext, “to get the essence of Bette we
needed to see him showing off, singing and
telling stories”. The effect is heightened by the
photographs from Bourne’s past, projected onto
the upstage screen throughout their
conversation. Bourne captures some of the
vitality of his youth in his anecdotes, and to see
him perform against backdrop images of his
former self is a poignant and life-affirming
experience.
To fully appreciate the impact of this piece
you’ll need to see all three acts, each one
presented as a separate performance. But this
moving and often hilarious production will be
one of the best investments of your time in the
festival. AD
Theatre
Little Gem
Traverse
Elaine Murphy’s latest play presents three
women from different generations within a
Dublin family. Kay (Anita Reeves) is a sexually
frustrated woman in her early 60s, caring for
her husband Gem who has been wholly
dependent on her since his stroke. Lorraine
(Hilda Fay) is her middle-aged daughter who,
having experienced something of a breakdown
at work, is looking for a way to bring excitement
back into her life. Her teenage daughter Amber
(Sara Greene) has discovered that she is
pregnant, and is learning to live with the
consequences.
These are familiar challenges in the sphere
of family life, but the unabashed simplicity of
Little Gem is also its strength. Director Paul
Meade has the three women isolated from each
other by spotlights, each occupying their own
small space on the stage. They tell their stories
through direct address, taking turns to offer
more insights into their private concerns and
experiences. It’s not the most original of
concepts, but the form creates the necessary
degree of intimacy for a play that depends so
much on audience empathy.
Hope is burgeoning at the heart of this
piece. As we see Kay’s husband Gem
deteriorate, we learn of Amber’s decision to
name her new baby boy after him; another
simple idea which sees the mourning Kay
enlivened by the possibilities of the future.
Through the simultaneous representation of
these three generations of women, we can see
glimpses of where they have been, and where
they might be going, in the manner of Edward
Albee’s Three Tall Women. Little Gem is a
touching reminder of life’s transience, but also
of its triumphs, and that without our shared
experiences we can barely live at all. AD
Theatre
Little Johnny’s Big Gay Musical
Pleasance Dome
Scottish theatre company, Random
Accomplice, present the return of the musical
spectacular, which was performed to full
houses in 2007 at Glasgow’s gay arts festival,
Glasgay! A one-man show, its star Johnny
McKnight is supported by the gorgeous and
accomplished vocalist Natalie Toyne, and his
band: Karen McIver, Marion Christie and Neil
Cameron.
McKnight depicts the life of working class
Scots lad Little Johnny, looking back at the
formative years. He vibrantly struts, sashays
and sings his coming out story, with
enthusiasm, energy and a cheeky grin.
This show is an absolute delight to watch.
The real pleasure of it isn’t the camp, the
honesty, McKnight’s graphic turns of phrase,
the accomplished dancing, the cracking vocals,
the band, the costumes, the comedy, the
beautiful set, or even the surprisingly up front
depiction of various types of gay sex. No, the
fact is that this is first and foremost good old
fashioned entertainment, performed really well,
which will have you smiling broadly days later
at its memory. MW
Comedy
Lucy Porter - Fool’s Gold
Pleasance Courtyard
As a small woman on a big stage, I
expected Porter to struggle to maintain a
presence. As soon as she appeared however, it
became all too clear that this would not be a
concern. A smile and a wave win her a warm
reception, and she proceeds to address the
latecomers in an opening gambit that could not
have been scripted, a brave move by any
standards. Porter is so easy to like that it’s all
the audience can do to forgive her when she
harasses a minor and accidentally calls
Somerset “retarded,” both with swift apologies.
The jokes are a mixed bag, ranging from a
surreal medical experiment on an audience
member to cheap shots at Michael Jackson and
Jade Goody, but Porter has a manner so
genuine that the weaker material hardly detracts
from the fun. An accomplished and assured
performance. ET
Comedy
Luke Wright
- The Petty Concerns of
Underbelly
The overused term ‘fringe favourite’ aptly
applies to stand-up comedian and poet, Luke
Wright. It’s not that he’s improved with age - his
ability was clear when I first saw him around
eight years ago - it’s that every year he has
consistently produced strong and memorable
shows.
In 2009 his theme is ‘petty concerns’, a
self deprecating look at being a ‘nearly famous’
poet who, even though he knows it’s wrong,
can’t help but ‘Google’ his own name when
alone.
There is plenty of comedy to be had from
the outcome of these searches, in a set that
would be strong if stand-up comedy were the
sole attraction. The fact that the gags are
interspersed with sharp, intelligent, often
satirical self penned poems serves to enhance
the show further.
For those that think poetry is boring, I
challenge you to see Luke Wright and not be
thoroughly entertained. MW
Comedy
Marcus Brigstocke - God Collar
Assembly Hall
Marcus Brigstocke, star of Radio 4’s The
Now Show and TV’s Argumental and I’ve Never
Seen Star Wars, is something of a celebrity, and
I am a big fan. If I have learned anything from
years of the fringe however, it is that the live
stand-up us festival-goers know and enjoy and
the kind of comedy the general population know
from radio and television are two quite different
creatures. Just as some of the weird and
wonderfully funny acts you see here will never
be commissioned for television, those who
have made it big won’t always deliver under the
pressure of a live gig.
Brigstocke is a wonderfully charming man,
and while the laughs are there, they’re
disappointingly infrequent. Don’t get me
wrong; the man is funny, but he never really
gets the whole room laughing. His stage
presence is somewhat placid for a man who
made his name getting angry, and material
about his kids and a deceased friend is a bit of a
downer. If you’re a fan like me, keep watching
his TV shows, and never meet your idols. ET
Comedy
Mark Thomas - The Manifesto
Stand III
Anyone on the left will be familiar with
Mark’s product. He’s a campaigning,
investigative journalist and writer - his books sit
alongside Naomi Klein, John Pilger and Tony
Cliff on the shelves of progressives. But he is
also a polished and professional stand up
comedian, and so accessible to the masses.
In The Manifesto, he seeks to set a new
political agenda by using policy suggestions
from the audience. At the end of the show the
audience votes, and the winning policy -
alongside those of the other thirteen shows -
gets to be debated with MSPs at a special
meeting held as ScotsGay goes to press on
19/08/09 (check our website for an update).
Fourteen shows. Fourteen audiences. Fourteen
policies. An innovative idea.
Mostly though, Mark and the audience are
playing it for laughs. “Ban the Labour Party and
other right wing groups”, and the winner for
tonight: “Require the Daily Mail to print the
following on every front page: ‘This is a fictional
representation of the news. Any resemblance
to real life is purely coincidental’ ” are typical of
the fare on offer from us, the audience. Mark’s
prepared material though, of which there is
plenty, is exceptionally good stuff. This is
genuinely hysterical campaigning satire which
finds the funny in the absurdity of capitalism -
with multinationals, MPs, the police, Bob
Geldolf and arms dealers all getting the
treatment. Where he is different - and better -
than any other popular satirist around today, is
that we are left with no doubt about WHAT WE
CAN DO ABOUT IT.
This show, laugh for laugh, has to be, for
me, the best of the best on this fringe. The fact
that it’s also a call to arms has to mean that five
stars aren’t enough. MW
Theatre
Midsummer (A Play with Songs)
Traverse
The sanguine refrain of Midsummer (A
Play with Songs), “change is possible”, is
delivered not by some wizened old sage in a
caftan, but by a ticket machine in Edinburgh’s
Castle Terrace car park. “It’s funny to have a
parking machine doling out philosophical
advice”, remarks Bob, the play’s male character.
But this isn’t a case of the universe offering
inspirational maxims by means of modern
electronic devices (in the manner of the traffic
sign in Steve Martin’s LA Story). Rather, the
implication is that we find inspiration through
the ways in which we choose to interpret the
world around us.
It’s strange that such an uplifting notion
can be found at the heart of a play which is
otherwise concerned with the inevitability of
physical decay. Bob shows the audience
photographs of himself as a child, observing
that the atoms of his youth have long since
disintegrated. But even in this most morbid of
concepts, playwright David Grieg finds humour
and optimism.
Midsummer is a story about the onenight-stand
that doesn’t end. Helena
approaches Bob in an Edinburgh bar and invites
him back to her flat. What begins as an
exercise in sexual gratification soon transforms
into a heady, romantic tour of Scotland’s
capital.
Cora Bissett and Matthew Pidgeon have
excellent on-stage chemistry, successfully
conveying all the excitement of a brand new
relationship and the recklessness that comes
with it. They both play the acoustic guitar
throughout, singing Gordon McIntyre’s uplifting
numbers, all of which brilliantly complement
the rambunctious, knockabout quality of the
piece. It may not be a particularly original
concept, but when a play is this joyous it barely
matters. AD
Theatre
Mother/Son
Sweet Grassmarket
This is a beautiful performance that packs
an emotional punch that will knock you from
here to the end of the festival. I’m not normally
one to get a lump in my throat, but I was
struggling to hold it back by the end.
Solomon’s portrayal of a mother and son
struggling to reconcile the fact that he is gay is
in parts brilliant comedy, in parts stomachchurningly
sad, and throughout is a wonderful
tribute to anyone who has ever come out, and
the family members who have accepted them.
Solomon plays both the part of Bradley,
and of his mother. He does this fantastically
well, adopting the voices and mannerisms with
great skill. He delves into the deeper issues
involved in any family accepting someone as
gay – the denial, the blame, the cure, and then
the rationalisation. Bradley invites his mother
to a gay bar; recommends a Parents & Friends
of Lesbians & Gays Group, and ultimately she
comes out as a radical pro-gay activist who
befriends other waifs and strays whose family
members are not so understanding.
The biggest achievement of this
performance is that it injects emotion into gay
relationships. ‘It’s not just about sex; it’s about
love and companionship’. So much
homophobia is borne from a sexualisation of
gay people, and in this performance Solomon
very successfully achieves portraying the issue
of sexuality as a complete non-issue; whilst
portraying the very sad truth that for so many
people it really is still an issue.
This is a play where love conquers all;
where communication and bravery and using
one’s voice ultimately lead to a close bond and
respect that most of us could only dream of.
This will be one of the most moving hours of
your life to date – and I challenge you to watch
it and leave with dry eyes! JF
Comedy
Mould & Arrowsmith’s
Inventions
Pleasance Dome
Steve Mould and Gemma Arrowsmith are
a charming double act, and their latest offering,
“a geeky sketch comedy”, has some very funny
original ideas.
They hook their hour on a recurring ‘time
machine goes wrong’ gag, utilising concepts
that are deceptively technical in execution.
There are some wonderfully silly PowerPoint
skits, and several jokes using advanced maths
that er, more than add up (sorry). Their off-thecuff
banter with the audience is a joy. They
clearly both relish interaction with the
customers - either one could steal the march on
any improvised sketch show.
Only occasionally do they milk an idea for
a wee bit more than it’s worth, but with comedy
of this high calibre, no-one cares.
Sketch shows are all over the fringe this
year - more than ever. This is one of the very
best. I recommend Mould & Arrowsmith to you
without hesitation. MW
Comedy
The Noise Next Door
C Chambers Street
Improvisational comedy is something I am
usually very wary of; at constant risk of looking
contrived, and too regularly requiring the
comedians to work the unworkable and keep it
funny. But, despite my initial reservations, The
Noise Next Door are rare in that they are not
just a good improv group, but they are a
brilliant one. All five of them carry their weight,
and they have clearly been working together for
a while as they all effortlessly set up some
brilliant punchlines for each other, which the
audience appreciates rapturously.
As I said, the most obvious pit-fall of an
improv show is it coming across as contrived,
and too structured, but with The Noise Next
Door, this is not a problem. Working on the
incredibly loose narrative that they have landed
on a mysterious planet, the only obvious
constant in the show was the nature of the
games they’d play.
All in all, it’s a great show that made me
eat my words about improv. JD
Theatre
Once A Catholic
C Chambers Street
This play is a mediocre exploration of
catholic guilt and hypocrisy, as we follow the
curiosities of seven sexually naïve convent girls.
Scenes of nuns force-feeding the girls mashed
potatoes, terrorising them about the evils of
sex, and the priest hurrying along the
confessional so he can make the off-license
before it shuts, are all fairly predictable.
The girls’ acting is, in general, unemotive
and fails to make a connection with the
audience. The shining light of the performance
comes in the form of Derek, the bad boy who
lures the girls into sexual promiscuity. His
acting is phenomenal and he adds a jolt of
enthusiasm into an otherwise bland production.
The show over-ran by an achingly long twentyfive
minutes, by which time I was desperate to
leave. JF
Theatre
Orphans
Traverse
Dennis Kelly’s Orphans opens with a
punch; a quiet evening meal in the suburban
home of married couple Helen and Danny is
interrupted by Helen’s brother Liam, whose
shirt is covered in blood. He seems relatively
unconcerned, and it takes some coaxing to
uncover what has happened. Liam’s revelations
are unconvincing and disingenuous, the sort of
responses one might expect of a child or, as in
the case of Liam, a troubled young man whose
transition to adulthood has been disrupted by
traumatic events in his past.
The real story behind the bloody shirt is
revealed gradually through the course of the
play. As we edge nearer towards the truth, the
picture becomes darker and more disturbing,
particularly when both Helen and Danny begin
to implicate themselves in Liam’s crime in order
to protect him from prosecution.
Kelly has explored similar territory before
in DNA, his 2007 piece for the National
Theatre’s Connections series for teenage
audiences, in which a group of children
inadvertently kill one of their friends and are
forced to invent ways to cover up the crime. In
Orphans the stakes are raised, and the
consequences are even more unsettling.
Above all else, Kelly’s play examines the
implications of social mobility. Helen has
married into Danny’s middle-class world, and
due to Liam’s actions is again forced to
They’re back...
‘Fabulous’
confront the unpleasant realities of her former
life. This contrast is brilliantly realised in
Garance Marneur’s evocative set, which
represents Danny’s Ikea-clad home as a porous
and vulnerable place; the railings from the
outside world a constant visible presence
between gaps in the walls, menacing shadows
from outside frequently penetrating the florid
wallpaper within. The effect is suitably
ominous.
It is worth noting that Kelly’s workingclass
characters often seem to lack a moral
compass, a notion which is slightly off-putting
and, moreover, experientially unsound. That
said, this production succeeds on a number of
levels. The performances by Joe Armstrong,
Claire-Louise Cordwell and Jonathan
McGuinness are flawless. Roxana Silbert’s
direction is taut and perfectly paced. Most
impressive of all is Kelly’s dialogue, which veers
from the hard-hitting to the outright hilarious
without ever feeling contrived. Our
expectations are repeatedly confounded, and by
the end it is difficult to know where our
sympathies should lie. This is visceral and
uncompromising theatre. AD
Theatre
‘Gloriously outrageous’
Out of Chaos
Underbelly
Retelling various Greek myths, Out of
Chaos is a superb show, in both concept and
execution. The myths are retold in an
accessible, yet intellectually stimulating way
that is neither dumbed down, nor overly
academic.
Also, the acting here is superlative, with all
six actors working well together to create
pathos, humour, and energy. Offstage, the
quality is just as high; Mike Tweddle’s direction
is slick and imaginative.
All in all, this is a brilliant production
which succeeds in bringing physical theatre to a
wider audience in an unintimidating way. JD
Scotsman
Chortle
‘Witty, sharp and very funny’
Times
‘Has the audience gasping for more’
STAND THREE VENUE 12
tickets 0131 558 7272
Comedy
Paul Foot: By the Yard
Underbelly
Oxford graduate Paul Foot doesn’t tell
jokes, as much as have an occasional idea. He
bumbles on the stage, sees a stool that
apparently shouldn’t be there, and then with
fumbling and pin-point accurate observational
humour makes us all laugh about it for fifteen
minutes. I say all, perhaps I should say about
two thirds of this capacity audience. A sizable
minority sat stony faced during, well, not just
this routine but the entire show.
Foot’s appearance is ill-fitting and funny.
The clothes are wrong. His hair defies
description. It’s quite old-fashioned, but the
way he looks and indeed, everything he does, is
designed to make you laugh. The fact that
some don’t get it simply makes it funnier.
Suck it and see. You’ll either become a fan
for life and join his growing band of
connoisseurs, or you won’t. MW
List